To Ernst Krause   13 May 1879

Bassett | Southampton

May 13. 79

My dear Sir,

I write a line to thank you for your extremely kind letter & to assure you that I will lose no time.1 Perhaps I may be able to send my rough MS to the printers which would greatly expedite matters.2 I see announced a book about Erasmus Darwin & Lamarck by Saml. Butler & I will write to the booksellers & tell them to send you a copy.3

my dear Sir, | Yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin

LS(A)

1
In his letter of 8 May 1879, Krause asked to be sent proof-sheets of CD’s biographical sketch of Erasmus Darwin, CD’s grandfather, in order to prepare a German edition of Erasmus Darwin (Krause 1880).
2
CD had contemplated having fair copies of his draft made for Krause and the printer even though this would waste time (see letter to Ernst Krause, 9 May [1879]).
3
Samuel Butler’s book discussed the evolutionary theories of Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon; Jean Baptiste de Lamarck; and Erasmus Darwin (S. Butler 1879). William Sweetland Dallas had mentioned the book in his letter of 9 May 1879; it was announced in an advertisement in Nature, 8 May 1879, p. x.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 Bassett | Southampton] in CD’s hand above del ‘Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12051,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12051